The Definitive Ranking Of Every Fight Scene From The ’90s ‘Mortal Kombat’ Movies

Whenever I read an article or online comment saying there’s never been a good video game movie, I get just a bit annoyed. I get downright vexed if those articles or comments specifically call out the Mortal Kombat movies for being bad because, dammit, the Mortal Kombat movies are great. Well, at least the first one is. Yes, they’re ridiculous and immature, but then the games they’re based on are also ridiculous and immature.

The Mortal Kombat movies are the most respectful, accurate video game-to-movie adaptations ever made. Yeah, that’s kind of a sad statement, but, on the other hand, it’s not, because Mortal Kombat is awesome in any form. So, in honor of the recent passage of the Mortal Kombat movie’s 20th anniversary, it’s time to cue up the most ear-slayingly awesome movie theme song of the ’90s…

@JamesonGBrown He was also pretty cool in Men of War, a Dolph Lungdren movie I specifically remember because of Goddard’s “This won’t be I hit you, you hit me, It’s I hit you, I hit you, I f***ing hit you,” in that awesome Kano voice.

I hated Annihilation when I First watched it, but re-watching it for this article, it wasn’t terrible. I mean, obviously it *was* terrible, but in a fun enough sort of way. They certainly pack a lot of fan service into it’s 70-or-so minutes. I think if Bridgette Wilson had returned as Sonya I would have remembered much more fondly.

@Nate Birch I’ve watched it again within the last year with my younger brothers. Both movies came on back to back and it is glaringly obvious that they rushed the sequel. The one prevailing thought I had back in 97 and 2015? Why did Lui Kang basically lose every fight until the end and it wasn’t looking good there for a while either. My favorite part of the final fight is when the Elder Gods say the battle for earth should be decided in Mortal Kombat. The music swells, Lui gets in some good hits then wham, uppercut and the music just shuts off. As a teen I was like “yeah, that looks about right.”

Semi related, what’s it going to take to get a WMAC Masters reboot? I mention this because a lot of the good fighters were in Masters, and it was basically just WWF without the crowd and good promotion, but still excellent fighting choreography.

WMAC Masters was my jam. I still remember practicing for weeks to do that one technique where you jump high enough to trap a target between your heels. Basically a Hurricarana without the roll through and possibly crushing a man’s skull with your heels.

Umm I could have put up a better fight against Liu Kang. Gotta watch out for the Ice bucket next time. Great movie tho. Johnny Cage/Scorpion, Liu Kang/Reptile and Sonya/Kano fight scenes were rad stuff.

Also let’s not forget that Mortal Kombat Conquest TV series which was actually pretty decent. Or at least better then Mortal Kombat Ahnilation. And all the guest stars like Jaimie Pressly, Brooke Burns, Eva Mendes gave it an addition awesome 90’s feel :)

I feel like you sold the Liu Kang/Shang Tsung fight a little short. The very beginning of the fight where they are basically standing toe to toe trading and blocking punches was really well done. Agree that it goes off the rails a bit after that.